First, an introduction: I'm happy to be the new restaurant columnist for the Sacramento Business Journal. I believe that the Sacramento area is on the cusp of culinary greatness. We are brimming with potential, and some great standouts are already among us. I look forward to learning and sharing information about upcoming deserving food and beverage businesses.

I've worked in a number of different culinary positions, and I have a degree from The Culinary Institute of America in Hyde Park, NY. I've lived in Italy, NYC, Seattle, San Francisco and Napa Valley, so I'm very lucky to have had some excellent dining experiences, and I can appreciate exactly what goes into making a good dining experience just that. While quality and flavor of food is first and foremost in my opinion, it’s not the only thing that makes or breaks a restaurant. Even the best tasting meal can be destroyed by other elements, such as poor service, lack of value, or discomfort.

As I learn about and recommend restaurants in this area, I hope to inform readers of what each place is good for: Business lunches? Groups? Families? Impressing your guests? Weeknight rescues of overworked parents? I hope to help you determine why and when you might visit a new place or event, and I look forward to your feedback.

Bacon & Butter's last days ... in midtown: Get your buttermilk flapjacks, biscuits and bacon gravy while you can. This Friday, Saturday and Sunday are Bacon and Butter’s last days in midtown. The restaurant on 21st Street will close next week as it puts the final touches on its new location at 5913 Broadway in Tahoe Park.

Aiming for Father’s Day weekend, the restaurant will reopen with a “Going Home” party, which chef and owner Billy Zoellin likens to moving out of your college roommate’s apartment and finally getting your own place – growing up, if you will.

For the last two years, Bacon and Butter was one half of a partnership with Midtown BarFly, a club that operated in the same space at night. Bacon and Butter served the food, and the club served the alcohol. Zoellin explained that the club wanted more use of the space, so they kindly asked Bacon and Butter to move on. They are separating on good terms.

Running the restaurant and overseeing the construction of the new space has taken a lot of effort. “The only reason I’m still open now is my employees. I’d be nothing without my team,” Zoellin explained.

The new space will be a take on the classic breakfast diner, modernized for dinner service. The room will have an open kitchen, and the new bar and chef’s table will allow guests to witness the show and spectacle of the busy kitchen. Inside, the restaurant will seat 90; an outside patio will add another 30 seats.

The new location has a beer and wine license, and Zoellin plans to buy from local breweries and wineries, keeping in line with his practice of developing relationships with local farmers. Soon after opening, he hopes to sign a deal with a bartender who can lead the bar in an inventive direction to match Zoellin’s food.

Once they are up and running, the restaurant will be open seven days a week. At first, they’ll serve only breakfast and lunch, but in time they will expand to happy hour and dinner on Thursday, Friday and Saturday nights.

With all the changes coming up in the new location, Zoellin says he’s most excited about a new barbecue trailer, which he plans to keep out on the patio. “We’re staking our claim for pastrami in Sacramento,” he explained, and added that he’ll also use the barbecue to make beef jerky.